The UAE has issued updated regulatory guidelines for steel bars used in concrete reinforcement (rebar), aligning with international standards such as BS 4449:2005, ASTM 615/615M, ASTM 706, and ISO 6935-1, according to a document from the Ministry of Industry & Advanced Technology (MoIAT). These new regulations will take effect on November 27, 2024.
The primary goal of the regulation is to ensure that all construction steel products sold in the UAE market meet safety standards, allowing the public to trust that these products will perform as intended in the built environment. A key innovation in the regulation is the requirement for digital product information and traceability, facilitating the application of the Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS) mark. This will create a level playing field for manufacturers and make the UAE the first country to mandate Digital Product Passports, enabling a fully digitized supply chain, according to MoIAT.
To comply with the regulation, rebar manufacturers, both within the UAE, including free zones, and outside the UAE, must submit applications via the official MoIAT website. A notified body will handle the assessment process, which includes an initial inspection of the manufacturing plant, an audit of the factory’s production control system (to ISO 9001 standards), and verification of product performance. Manufacturers will also be required to use static and dynamic QR codes for product tracking. Once all stages of assessment are satisfactorily completed, MoIAT will issue a certificate of conformity based on documented, permanent, and internal production controls at the manufacturing facility. Ongoing surveillance, product audits, and periodic sample testing will be carried out by the notified body before the products are placed on the market. The ECAS mark will be granted to manufacturers who meet all the regulatory requirements, enabling them to certify their products accordingly.
In addition, rebar manufacturers must submit a declaration of performance to the notified body and provide a digital product passport on the notified body’s cloud-based platform. This passport includes all the necessary details, as specified by the material test certificate.
The document also emphasizes that billet sourcing must comply with the regulation. Suppliers of externally sourced billets or semi-finished products must provide a valid certificate of conformity, including a declaration of the billet’s chemical composition and radioactivity screening. The origin and composition of the billets will be available on the notified body’s cloud-based platform, with traceability maintained for each batch.
Long steel producers in the UAE are also required to obtain an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) in accordance with EN 15804 standards by July 1, 2025. Integrated mills must provide EPDs, valid for a maximum of three years, while rerollers are required to provide an EPD for each batch of finished product sourced from billet suppliers. Welded wire mesh manufacturers must maintain traceability of their finished products to the feedstock rod, with each rod supplier also needing an EPD by July 2025. However, welded wire mesh manufacturers are exempt from needing an EPD for their own operations.
